A board recommended that Wayne County Circuit Judge Wade McCree be removed from the bench. / Pool Photo

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Citing a pattern of misconduct that included having an affair with a witness in a case he was hearing and repeatedly lying under oath, the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission recommended today that Wayne County Circuit Judge Wade McCree be removed from the bench.

If McCree, who is already suspended without pay, wins re-election in 2014, he should be suspended for six years beginning Jan. 1, 2015, the commission said in a report released today.

The recommended punishment is subject to approval by the Michigan Supreme Court, which is expected to rule late this year.

McCree, who infamously told a Detroit TV reporter “There’s no shame in my game” when confronted about once sending a shirtless photo of himself to a sheriff’s office employee, gave more chastened testimony when he was cross-examined at his disciplinary hearing in May.

He did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment Monday.

“I don’t agree with it,” but “I’m not surprised,” McCree’s Southfield attorney, Brian Einhorn, said of the recommendation.

McCree admitted having an affair with Geniene La’Shay Mott, a complaining witness in a child support case before him, and agreed during testimony in his disciplinary hearing that he should have recused himself. McCree, who is married, testified that his failure to do so did not affect his decisions in the case

“The evidence reveals a pattern of misconduct in this case,” the commission said.

“During his relationship with Mott, respondent used his chambers to engage in sexual intercourse with Mott, permitted Mott to enter the courthouse through an employee entrance without going through security, allowed Mott to remain alone in his chambers while he was on the bench, arranged for Mott to park her vehicle in an area reserved for judges, and brought Mott’s cell phone into the courthouse for her, in violation of the court’s security policy, so that she could communicate with him while he was on the bench.”

The commission noted McCree also presided over a second case, involving a relative of Mott’s, without recusing himself.

Also, McCree “engaged in a pervasive pattern of dishonesty that included lying under oath to the commission.”

Paul Fischer, executive director and general counsel of the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, said the commission wanted McCree removed but added the suspension language as a fallback in case McCree gets re-elected in 2014. Otherwise, McCree might have been able to serve his term if he won the November 2014 election, he said.

Larry Dubin, a professor at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, said he wasn’t surprised the panel recommended McCree’s removal.

“The misconduct that was established against him was clearly of a serious nature and would be beyond the realm of any prudent, impartial judge,” Dubin said.

The best case that could be made to the Supreme Court for a suspension, rather than a removal, would be that McCree’s actions were an aberration from his normal conduct, based on mental health issues, Dubin said.

A physician testified McCree might suffer from hypomania — a condition described as the opposite of depression in which people can lose the ability to act prudently or know the difference between right and wrong.

Einhorn, McCree’s attorney, said it was “unusual and grossly unfair” to suspend McCree while the case against him was pending. Einhorn will have an opportunity to make arguments before the Michigan Supreme Court about the appropriateness of the recommended punishment.

A 17-page report about the situation written by retired Jackson Circuit Judge Charles Nelson, the special master who presided over McCree’s misconduct trial, said repeatedly that the judge lied — including about why he eventually transferred the case.